I know this has been a half a$$ series in my blog, but the process was so slow that I just really had nothing to write about on a consistent basis. That being said, there was a lot to learn from the process as a whole, and sometimes things happen at such a slow pace you can’t see the forest for the trees.

I guess it is like seeing a child after a long time and you instantly realize how much they have grown, but to the parent, it is not so obvious. So the same thing applied to my student. As I watched him work, his body positioning and form got better and better, along with his confidence, and most importantly, he began to think like a woodworker.

The project itself was not easy, and there were problems with the plans which really slowed the work down, but in a way, I thought it was good for him to see, that making a project seldom comes off perfectly. A really good woodworker knows how to cover or recover from their mistakes. To be honest, I don’t mind having a student make mistakes. I want them to learn that mistakes can be overcome.

Now that his project is complete, and I hope he will always remember our time together, and even though the project is not perfect, I hope he will appreciate the project because of all the hard work he put into it. I still have the spice rack I made in my eighth grade shop class for my mother, and every time I look at it, I think back to my time in that class and how proud I was to make it for her.